What Films Are Showing Nearby?

The Reel Box can show you which films are currently running at your local cinemas.

Once you share your location with The Reel Box the list of films running in nearby movie theatres is listed in the side-panel. If you roll over the movies in the side-panel the cinemas that are currently showing the film are displayed on a Google Map.

As an added bonus you can even watch the official trailer for each selected film.

The Diamond Jubilee on Google Maps

Google and Historypin have created an interactive archive of photographs and videos from Queen Elizabeth's visits and jubilee celebrations over the six decades of her reign.

For the project Historypin want to collect as many contributions as possible, from individuals and archives all around the world. So if you have any Queen Elizabeth related photographs or videos you can add them to the Historypin - Diamond Jubilee Album.

Historypin, if you still haven't seen it, is a great collection of user submitted historical photographs and videos which can be viewed on Google Maps. One of the stand-out features of Historypin is the ability to view the photos and videos superimposed on the modern Google Maps Street View image.

Another stand-out feature is the ability to create your own album. This Golden Jubilee album is a great way to promote this feature. I'm sure Historypin will be getting a lot more UK users due to this new project.

New Years Eve Videos on Google Maps

Last night we saw some amazing fireworks displays taking place throughout the world to herald in the New Year.

Sydney in Australia put on its usual spectacular display. In London, the UK geared up for its Olympics year by putting on an impressive display on the Thames. In Dubai the tallest building in the world, the Burj Khalifa also saw an amazing display of fireworks.

Here is a small collection of some of the best New Year's Eve Fireworks that took place last night.

Happy New Year everybody.

YouTube Videos on Google Maps

MapsTube is the second application this week, after Google Shoot View, to have made a faithful reproduction of the Google Maps design. I'm not sure how happy Google's copyright lawyers will be but, from a user's perspective, the familiar UI does help with navigating the site.

MapsTube is a Google Map that you can search for YouTube videos. You can use the application to search for any subject and matching, geo-tagged, videos will be displayed on the map.

I've already bookmarked this map as it is a great resource to find videos based on real-time current events. For example, this last week it has been a great way to find videos about the Russian election protests in Moscow.

ZDF Videos on Google Maps

Public-service German television broadcaster ZDF has created a Google Map of geo-tagged videos from their archives. ZDF - Geothek lets users browse a map for video clips from ZDF that cover both current and older events around the world.

As well as browsing the video by location a time-line allows users to browse the video by date. Users can view the ZDF videos directly from the map. The map also includes a geographical quiz and information about countries around the world.

California Dreaming with Google Maps

Berlin Designers Annette Bruns and Oliver Spies fulfilled the dream of a lifetime by completing a surfing and skateboarding tour of California. Die Asphaltsurfer is a Google Maps and video application documenting the tour.

Using the application it is possible to view all the stops on the Asphaltsurfer's tour and view videos of the adventures that the pair experienced along the way. The application is another great creation by experienced German developers Ubilabs in partnership with MonstaMovies for the German media company 3Sat.

Win Olympics Tickets with Google Maps

The International Olympic Committee (IOC) are holding a competition called Show Your Best.

The competition can be entered by anyone aged 13-19. Entrants need to videotape, upload and share their 'personal best' moments. The personal best videos are being showcased and can be watched directly from a Show Your Best Google Map.

The two winners of the competition will win a trip to the London 2012 Summer Games, others will appear in a commercial to be broadcast during the London 2012 Olympic Games.

As well as the Google Map, showcasing the submitted videos, users can use a Digital Mash Up Creator to take their uploaded video and instantly see their best mixed into some of the greatest Olympic moments, and share the mashup with their friends.

Share Videos of Your City with Google Maps

My City Lives is an application that allows anyone to share their experiences and stories about a location with a short video. The uploaded videos are showcased on a Google Map based on where the videos were filmed.

Users can explore the uploaded videos by location on the map or by channel, tag or currently trending. It is also possible to ask questions about a location via the 'Voices' tab and hopefully members of the My City Lives community will post a video response.

Watch Live Broadcasts on Google Maps

One of my favourite smartphone apps is live broadcasting application Bambuser. The application lets you broadcast live video straight from you mobile phone or a webcam.

The only bugbear that I used to have with Bambuser is that it didn't have a map of broadcasts happening right now, so that users could select from the currently live broadcasts geographically. Well, now it does!

The live Bambuser Google Map shows the location of live broadcasts, those recorded in the last 24 hours and even older recorded broadcasts. You can even watch the live streams directly from the map.

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Watch Live Broadcasts on Google Maps

One of my favourite smartphone apps is live broadcasting application Bambuser. The application lets you broadcast live video straight from you mobile phone or a webcam.

The only bugbear that I used to have with Bambuser is that it didn't have a map of broadcasts happening right now, so that users could select from the currently live broadcasts geographically. Well, now it does!

The live Bambuser Google Map shows the location of live broadcasts, those recorded in the last 24 hours and even older recorded broadcasts. You can even watch the live streams directly from the map.

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Historical Film on Google Street View

I think there is something kind of magical about viewing old film clips on top of the modern Street View image of where the movies were shot. I've updated my There and Then historical videos application to try and improve the user interface.



I've also added a few more historical videos. Some highlights of the more recently added videos to the app include a 1960's film of the Vatican and a 1950's film of the Colosseum in Rome.



I'd love to hear what you think about the app, particularly whether you think the user interface is intuitive or a little difficult to understand. So feel free to tell me what you think in the comments.



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Video Map of Syrian Uprising

The Syrian Uprising 2011 Information Center has created a Google Map of videos shot by activists during Monday’s protests.



To view a video you need to click on a map marker and click through to watch the video on YouTube. The map markers themselves are colour-coded to show towns with reported protests, towns on strike and towns under attack or besieged.



Syria Monday 15/08/2011



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Virtual Travel with Google Maps

Wandercast.TV is a travel video website that aims to allow you to "Watch where you’re going before leaving home."



If you are planning a trip you can search Wandercast.TV for great places to visit and view a video of the location before travelling. Alternatively you can of course just browse Wandercast.TV to virtually visit places in the world that you may never get a chance to visit for real.



Each video on Wandercast.TV is accompanied by a Google Map showing the location where it was shot. If you have your own travel videos then you can also upload them to the Wandercast.TV map.



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One Day on Google Maps

On 10.10.10 One Day on Earth asked people around the world to create a video of their world. The goal of the project was to "create an open shareable archive and documentary film of the world on 10/10/10."

Whilst you wait for the finished full-length film to be released you can browse and watch the thousands of videos that were contributed around the world on this Google Map.

If you click on a map marker you can watch the selected video in the map sidebar. For each video you can view details, such as where and when it was shot and who by.

One Day on Earth

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New York Videos on Google Maps

MyBlockNYC is a Google Maps based application that allows users to upload and explore videos documenting the life and culture of New York City.

The site already boasts nearly 1000 videos and videos representing 734 New York City blocks. The blocks that have videos are displayed on the map with yellow roads. If you click on a yellow line you can watch the video directly from the map.

As well as exploring the videos by location you can filter the results by category, by time of day and season, and by the age and sex of the film-maker.

MyBlocNYC

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Boris' Cabs on Google Maps

This certainly qualifies as the strangest map I've seen for a while. The map creates the scenario of the user wanting to catch a taxi from a famous London landmark to the ICC London Excel conference centre.

The map displays a number of videos of London mayor Boris Johnson moonlighting as a London taxi driver. Each of the videos contains a brief description, by Boris Johnson, of a famous London landmark. When you click on one of the landmarks you can watch the appropriate video and, at the same time, a route is displayed on the map from the landmark to the ICC London Excel conference centre.

There seems to be a little bug in the map that stops the video displaying properly in FireFox but it worked fine for me in Chrome and Internet Explorer.

Take me there Boris!

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Mornington Crescent on Google Maps

Mornington Crescent is a turn-based strategy game which, in its simplest form, can be picked up quite quickly but does take years to truly master. The rules of Mornington Crescent can appear very confusing when you first start playing the game. The almost infinite number of rule variations, such as "Trumpington's Variations" or "Tudor Court Rules", means that even seasoned players often get confused.

As an aide to novice players I have created this animated map of one particular notorious game when a novice player managed to beat two of the game's most famous players.

The game itself was recorded and luckily someone has uploaded it to YouTube. All you have to do is load the webpage and the video will start playing automatically. When the game begins the map will animate to show each of the players' moves.

If you want to learn more about the game then NF Stovold’s book 'Mornington Crescent: Rules and Origins' comes highly recommended.

Mornington Crescent

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Guided Video Walks with Google Maps

Walking the Edit

Walking the Edit is an innovative iPhone app that allows you to create a mapped video. It is a great way to create a guided video walk or a video about your neighborhood.

Using the app you can take a walk through a neighborhood and the iPhone app tracks your progress and stores the location of the videos that you take on your journey. When you have finished your walk the app then creates a Google Map of your route with your synchronised video.

The videos are displayed on your automatically created map by small map markers. The size of the marker represents the duration of the video at that location. When you play the video the map view synchronises to the location of the video.

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Street Video on Google Maps

MyStreet

MyStreet is a UK project where anyone can make a short video about the street they live in. The result is a really interesting snapshot into life in the UK and what people think is important about their neighbourhoods.

The site features a Google Map of all the films submitted so far. If you click on any of the map markers you can watch the film about the location and view a brief description.

If you want to take part submit your video before May 26th and you will also be eligible for the 2011 Open City, London Documentary festival.

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Time Travelling with Google Maps

There and Then

Why not let Google Maps take you back to the bygone days of the pre-digital world? This app I've put together superimposes historical YouTube videos on top of Street View to help transport you to a different age.

Using the chromeless video player, available in the YouTube API, I've tried to match a number of vintage films with the same view as seen in Street View today. The videos are mainly of 1920's Britain but there are few turn of the Twentieth Century U.S. videos in there as well.

To navigate to the different videos you just need to click on the thumbnail images at the bottom of the page.

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